Questionable Success on a Saturday

I am beginning to understand now, why old people move to Florida. I feel like I have ice floes in my veins. My joints are creaking like the Tin Man’s without oil. I am wearing fingerless gloves as I type this, presumably in a climate-controlled office, but sitting by a north-facing window in a very beautiful but very much not really weatherized building is not advantageous when the mercury drops.

The cold has kept me from properly working with Eli. I rode last week, but rides that were purely for the sake of exercise. All w/t/c and done. Failing to work on lateral moves and transitions, and maybe not getting all of Eli’s energy channeled positively set us up for a rather silly lesson. Even so, we jumped around. Horse, rider, and trainer were all satisfied in the end. What happened between the jumps is captured on video, which I will post and evaluate tomorrow. Until then, enjoy some video stills from Saturday, because both Eli and I look pretty much how we should. No, I do not have perfect eq and my left elbow is out of control, and yes, Eli probably has more scope than I will ever tap, as the jumps look mighty easy for him. And I’m happy with what we got going on so far!

simple enoughavoiding popsicle-izationknees, yes! left hock, get with the program!bootiesDear Left Elbow,Ugh. What are you even. Just, no.One day, I may attempt an automatic release. Until that day, I will lock my fingers into mane, white-knuckled.Basically love this unconditionally

My take-away is this: We are not a hunter team, we are a jumper team, so we don’t need perfection in between the jumps. What happens in between the jumps may not always come together, but it doesn’t really matter too much–it might screw us on time, but that just isn’t important to me right now. The jumps look fun! Eli looks bright and happy and ready to go, and I’m mostly keeping up! He has a personality that means if I don’t do our homework, he’s not going to take his job as seriously. It was cold, he came out ready to jump, but also fresh, ready to play, and express his opinion. Which is exactly my kind of horse!

Well, you may lock your fingers until they turn white, but at least they are on his mane and not on the pommel of your saddle! I see more and more riders in both hunter and jumper show rings hovering over their hands when jumping. I don’t know what that is all about, but man! It’s totally wrong and looks terrible, too.

However, even for jumpers (especially the higher and higher you go!) Yes, you do need everything between the jumps to be perfect. Not “hunter” slow and rolling, but your horse needs to be fully adjustable so you can move up or hold back, pop over bounces, or run down a long distance. Jumping – regardless of hunter or jumper – is all flat work with 1 stride off the ground. If you’re jumping 20 fences, you only have 20 strides off the ground that you don’t need to “worry” about. You have 132 strides (or whatever) on the flat that all need to be perfect!

Oh, I totally agree– solid flat work and adjustability are extremely important in the jumpers (or the hunters)! Always working toward that, it just doesn’t always come together perfectly every single time. But if this weren’t a challenging sport, I don’t think any of us would be so keen to do it!